Finale Week 15
Over the semester everyone in network media were asked to keep a blog to respond and make more sense of what we have been reading and doing work on. It was a new concept to me as I have never kept a blog before and it was a bit hard in the start getting use to every week making sure I had written something. I was never one to keep a diary or anything, so reflecting for me was a bit hard, and considering I was not quite sure what was expected from a blog for the audience. I have tried throughout the semester to make sure that my blog responds to the criteria, as well as networking it to other sites and informative and looking at the idea of how the audience would enjoy the site.
Looking at my blog, it is suited to teenagers; I have used simple language and a very conversational tone throughout to make it more personal between the user and myself. Nothing too technical and I think the audience are people just beginning with the internet and blogging. Words that most people would probably not know are linked to sites and I think this helps my audience understand what I am trying to say and give them more background on the terminology used through the blog.
Every single one of my blogs has a background on what the lecture and tutorial were like as well as my own personal opinion. I think it shows more understanding especially when you look at it from your own point of view rather than just the lecturer or the tutor. As looking through my blog the audience can grab a light, interesting and simple look at how the internet works and what happens behind the scenes of the World Wide Web. As well as how every user on the internet makes an implication on how the internet works.
From having to use a blog all semester it has finally dawned on me how the social media works on the internet. How people are draw to their interests, but from that they click on hyperlinks and end up going to all sorts of different sites, just from a single click. A user can guide their way around the internet by using search engines, but then when reading blogs, most users if they enjoy blogs from a certain person will use a rss feed to keep up to date which helps the blogger to get more popularity. And once this happens, more and more people will be directed towards the site, through different hyperlinks and other people’s blogs who respect what this blogger has to say.
My blog is set up very simply, to try and attract a larger audience, by not making users feel bombarded with information, colourful images and music and moving words, rather I wanted something straight forward that could be easily be used by all sorts of people. I created it so that there is a clear line between each blog entry and I just use a simple approach. I have hyper linked words I did not know or understood previously to the lecture or tutorial or words I believe people would prefer to have a definition for or learn more about. By doing this I have network my site to other sites, so that users can successfully navigate my site to another site and from there to more sites. I feel like my blogging site, even though it does not have a lot of traffic it still helps people navigate around the internet learning more about it as they go. It is hyperlinked to a lot of sites throughout the internet and I think by making many hyper links around the internet gives my site more validity and encourages people to read what I write and then go from my site to another one, still looking at the same concepts.
The three post I have decided to nominate are “API and Mashup” “Web 2.0” and “Multiplicity.” I feel all these blogs fit the criteria as well as having substance and hyper-linking throughout. They were lectures throughout the semester and I think this gives a broader range of what was covered in the course. They look at what I thought, and what was learnt that week and I think these two components are very important when dealing with a blog. I enjoyed learning about these three blogs throughout the semester as before network media I had never heard of quite a number of things that were mentioned. It was really satisfying learning more about the internet, and being able to use the internet outside of class and think about what it is actually made up of. The sites we were shown especially in API and Mashup were really fun and interesting as they used more than one site combined to create an extraordinary site full of fun and information. Previously to this course I had never worked out how it worked and I never thought people would be allowed to use other sites for their own purposes but it makes a lot of sense to be able to do that. Web 2.0 I had only ever heard of in myspace and it was confusing at first to work it but then when it was explained during the lecture and then the tutorial I began to grasp the idea that Web 2.0 was just the next expansion of Web 1.0 just like all other programs when they are made better by their creators. Multiplicity for me as well was a lecture and tutorial week I really enjoyed. It was great to work out how these complicated sites worked.
Throughout the semester I have tried very hard to get better at reflecting and making a difference to my blog. I tried to network whatever I thought was appropriate. I have really enjoyed keeping a blog and with the knowledge I have know I should be able to make myself a more popular blogger =) I feel that my blog shows my aptitude to learning and really helps not only myself but others who are thinking the same questions as me. I am going to continue to keep a blog and hopefully one day I will be one of those really respected bloggers and people will take what I have to say honestly. Before this course I did not know all the interesting aspects of the internet and it has really opened my eyes on how it works and what is expected of the users and the creators of sites and programs that millions of people use every day.
